Phoenix, AZ (October 22, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A federal prosecution initiated by several Fry\u2019s Food Stores workers, whose rights were abused by local union bosses during a looming strike last year, will proceed as a \u201cclass action\u201d and will potentially affect thousands of similarly-situated employees statewide.<\/p>\n
\nWith free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, employees from several Fry\u2019s locations in Arizona filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 union hierarchy and Fry\u2019s management after union and company officials continued to seize union dues from their paychecks despite repeated requests to stop.<\/p>\n
\nUpset by a UFCW Local 99 boss-initiated strike threat last November, the employees resigned formal union membership and revoked their dues deduction authorizations \u2013 used by union officials to automatically withhold dues from employee paychecks \u2013 during a time in which the union did not have a contract at their workplaces.<\/p>\n
\nThe charges, filed by Shirley Jones of Mesa, Karen Medley and Elaine Brown of Apache Junction, Kimberly Stewart and Saloomeh Hardy of Queen Creek, and Tommy and Janette Fuentes of Florence \u2013 acting for other similarly situated employees \u2013 spurred the NLRB Regional Director in Phoenix to find that the dues deduction authorizations used by UFCW Local 99 union officials at all Arizona Fry\u2019s Food Stores locations were illegal because they do not allow employees to revoke them once a contract terminates, as required by federal law.<\/p>\n
\nSubsequently, the NLRB\u2019s Regional Director initiated a statewide prosecution against UFCW Local 99 union bosses. However, an NLRB administrative law judge refused to uphold a subpoena of the union\u2019s statewide records that would indicate how widespread the union\u2019s practice of failing to honor Fry\u2019s employees\u2019 dues revocations really is. This week, the NLRB in Washington, D.C. overruled the judge\u2019s decision and ordered the union to comply with the subpoena.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThanks to the work done by this courageous group of independent-minded employees, UFCW Local 99 bosses are now staring at the consequences of violating the rights of possibly thousands of Fry\u2019s Food Stores workers across the Grand Canyon State,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Director of Legal Information at National Right to Work.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFoundation attorneys are prepared to assist workers whose rights may be violated in various UFCW-controlled retail food stores and processing plants, banks, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and waste management locations across the state of Arizona,\u201d added Semmens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phoenix, AZ (October 22, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A federal prosecution initiated by several Fry\u2019s Food Stores workers, whose rights were abused by local union bosses during a looming strike last year, will proceed as a \u201cclass action\u201d and will potentially affect thousands of similarly-situated employees statewide.<\/p>\n
\nWith free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, employees from several Fry\u2019s locations in Arizona filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 union hierarchy and Fry\u2019s management after union and company officials continued to seize union dues from their paychecks despite repeated requests to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n